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Firefox

Mozilla Firefox is a free and open source web browser developed for Microsoft Windows, OS X, and Linux, coordinated by Mozilla Corporation and Mozilla Foundation. Firefox uses the Gecko layout engine to render web pages, which implements current and anticipated web standards.

As of October 2012, Firefox has approximately 20% to 24% of worldwide usage share of web browsers, making it the second or third most widely used web browser, according to different sources. According to Mozilla, Firefox counts with over 450 milllion users around the world. The browser has had particular success in Indonesia, Germany, and Poland, where it is the most popular browser with 65%, 47% and 47% of the market share, respectively.

The Firefox project began as an experimental branch of the Mozilla project by Dave Hyatt, Joe Hewitt and Blake Ross. They believed the commercial requirements of Netscape's sponsorship and developer-driven feature creep compromised the utility of the Mozilla browser. To combat...

342 Recent Stories

Earlier this week, we kicked off a new feature that asked you to answer a simple question: which web app is better? Who'd win if you took two web tools, strapped boxing gloves on each of them, and threw them into a steel cage? We were curious, so tha...

We've had some pretty close races lately in our Lunchtime Poll feature, which got us thinking of the obvious question: which one of these contestants would win in a fantasy fight? So we decided to pit some of these services and software head-to-head ...

What time is it? Time for the Lunchtime Poll, that's what! If you've been following along already, you'll know how this works. We throw out a poll question, start off with some responses from the staff here at Mashable, and ask you fine folks to answ...

Firefox is the world's number two web browser, but it is probably the best option for students. In addition to being a stable and well designed browser with useful features, such as tabs, private browsing, and session restore, the reason Firefox is s...

Exactly one year ago today, the Google Chrome browser was launched to the world. And, in Google-like fashion, they took the unconventional route of announcing Chrome via comic book. Do you remember all of the discussion around Google's decision to en...

As some of you may know, we've been waging an IE6 Must Die campaign here at Mashable (see the post that kicked it off here). In that spirit, we thought it wise to arm you fine folks with a few alternatives for your web browsing pleasure. Some of the ...

Two weeks ago, Mozilla announced a major milestone for its Firefox web browser: one billion downloads. They even launched OneBillionPlusYou.com to mark the occasion and demonstrate just how large one billion really is. Not everyone's in awe of the nu...

Originally intended to display your bookmarks or browsing history, the Firefox sidebar can actually be put to many more uses. Airplane pilots and World of Warcraft players alike understand how valuable it can be to get more information at a glance, a...

You don't have to subscribe to the cult of GTD, shave your head and donate all your possessions to David Allen to improve your blogging workflow. Even taking a small amount of time to add some new discoveries to your toolkit now and then can reap lon...

As we reported yesterday, Firefox was on track to pass one billion downloads at some point on Friday. That point is now, as the counter on the Spread Firefox site as well as the Firefox Counter Twitter account are sporting numbers in the 10 digits. M...

Recent releases of the Firefox web browser have seen enormous download activity right out of the gate. Firefox 3.0 saw better than 8 million downloads in its first 24 hours, while the Firefox 3.5 update reached one million downloads hours after launc...

Here's a little test you can try: take a good look at your web browser, whichever flavor you're using, and name all the parts (outside of the actual web site you're viewing) you don't really need. I'm using Firefox, and for me, it's the home button a...

The pace at which Mozilla works can seem insane. It was less than a month ago when the the company released Firefox 3.5. Only three weeks later, Firefox posted screenshots of Firefox 3.7, which includes a change to the Tools bar and an Embracing Glas...

It hasn't even been a month since Firefox 3.5 was released to the masses, but Mozilla is already hard at work on Firefox 3.7. We gave you a sneak peek at what features are coming in 2010, but now we know what Firefox 3.7 may look like when it's relea...

Two days ago we wrote about a highly critical Firefox security bug, which, if exploited, enabled malicious attackers to run arbitrary code on the victim's computer. We're glad to report that Firefox was very quick to fix this issue with the first upd...

Mozilla has launched a new initiative called Contributions that encourages users to contribute money to Firefox Add-on developers. The payments will go through PayPal. Developers will be able to create a PayPal ID for each of their Firefox Add-ons, w...

Secunia reports of a new, unpatched, and highly critical security hole in Firefox 3.5 (possibly in other versions, too) that allows attackers to execute arbitrary code on the victim's computer. The vulnerability is caused due to an error when process...

Almost exactly a year after the last release, the latest version of Firefox, the world's second most used browser, arrived today in over 70 languages, and it's already spreading like wildfire to users around the globe. Firefox 3.5 has some notable im...

It has been just shy of two weeks since the first release candidate of Firefox 3.5 became available for download, and reports say that the latest version of Firefox should go official tomorrow. Yet already, the Mozilla team is wasting no time in prep...

A couple of days ago Mozilla has released the so-called Firefox 3.5 preview build, aimed solely at developers. It meant, however, that Firefox 3.5 RC1 build is around the corner, and as of today, it's available for download. If you're an end user, yo...

Most users have no time to browse through thousands of resources, read (often obscure) forums, and search for best tools to accomplish a certain task. That's why here at Mashable we've long held the belief that collections of various online resources...

Remember when we said that Firefox 3.5 Beta 4 was probably the last beta release before the final version 3.5? Well, it's not entirely true. There's a Firefox 3.5 Preview release out, aimed primarily at developers. The good news? It means that Firefo...

Launched late last year, Glue is a browser plugin that connects you to your friends while you are surfing the web. It creates a simple-to-use bar at the top of your screen that will show you what friends and strangers have said about a movie, gadget,...

Have you already fallen in love with the computational knowledge engine, better known as Wolfram Alpha? If you have, chances are you've been looking for easier ways to use this powerful tool, and for Firefox users, the best place to start is the add-...

Most people cannot build a Firefox extension - it requires knowledge of Javascript, XUL, and a little bit of XML experience. While there are about 8000 developers and 12,000 add-ons for Firefox, Mozilla is always looking to expand that base even furt...

The Firefox sidebar tool Juice could change the very way you browse the web, especially if you're an information junkie or a multitasker. Linkool Labs, the makers of Juice, released the 1.0 version of its extension today. The updated interface brings...

Some of us in the web community really wish Internet Explorer would die. It makes web designers' lives a pain, and it makes users' computers less secure. So you might be glad to know that Internet Explorer is dying: really, really, really slowly. In ...

The browser and the desktop are melding. Web applications like Facebook or Twitter used to be primarily browser-based, but more and more products such as Tweetdeck and Seesmic Desktop are bringing that functionality off-browser. Firefox though, can d...

Have you tried the Release Candidate (RC) version of Windows 7? If you upgrade from a previous version of Windows, and choose the "Express" option when installing, your default browser will be changed to Internet Explorer. Needless to say, this behav...

Do you remember how, a couple of years ago, you could tell someone who was clueless about computers to simply switch from Internet Explorer to Firefox, and that action alone would fix 90% of all their security problems? This hasn't been true for a wh...

We're proud to announce today that Mashable's sister site, blippr, has partnered with the Firefox add-on Glue to help you browse micro-reviews with your friends. What's blippr? It's a "Twitter for reviews" site that lets you review websites, movies, ...

The latest Firefox beta is called 3.5 beta 4, and although it sounds like a major change from the current stable version, it's really just a successor to ye olde 3.1 beta. Thus, expect improvements, but don't expect wonders. However, the good news is...

Firefox has a new version out, 3.0.9., which fixes several stability and security issues. Given how fast security issues are exploited (just remember the onslaught of Twitter worms from a couple of days ago), if you don't have automatic updates enabl...

Even though Veoh's Video Compass browser plug-in is just six weeks old, it's quickly reaching maturity. If you're not familiar with the tool, it's simply an add-on that lives in your browser. When turned on via the blue play button, you can search yo...

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